This art installation by the French designer Pierre David, takes a leaf out of Pantone books of yore. Now this is multiculturalism in full flow, in your face, and over the rest of your body too. It reminds me of what we like to do when clients visit. We give them a line drawing of a multicultural scene and a box of Multicultural Crayola. What's that you ask? Click here to find out.

I happened upon this ad for Minnesota's SouthWest Transit, just as the law in Ontario against handheld cellphone use kicks in. The timing is perfect and the advantage that transit offers the multitasking addict is driven home in busloads.

You've got to love Google because they've got the guts, the balls and the brand to do this sort of thing. When a brand is big, it's big-hearted and big-thinking. The occasion here is the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi - October 2nd.

A soupçon of visual punning. A dash of good timing. A gentle invitation to break your fast at Amer.A cracker of an ad for the Ramadan season from DDB Egypt via Ads of the World.

Article: Creative Commons License 2009 Gavin Barrett This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 Canada License.In other words, as long as you attribute ownership of these articles or posts to me you are free to use them and re-use them. Go ahead. Spread the love and the knowledge.

From time to time Pushing Buses happens on a link or nugget of information or page that just happens to help us all push buses - or trains or LRT. This simple interactive page from the outstanding online mag GOOD, shows us the difference of between the impersonal car-centric streets of the past and the vibrant people-focused streets of the future. Every transit planning site should be able to illustrate the benefits of transit as effectively. This one really rocks my boat. Click here to get the full experience.

Image via visualizeusArticle and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009

Smart, hip and desi, Masala Chai is a steaming cup filled with desi design wit. Check it out. Posts range from an intro to the stellar fold-your-own paper dolls of Mira Malhotra (shown here) to the Madhubani-folk-art-inspired paintings of Arti Sandhu. Respect.

A common sobriquet that describes Chinese Canadians with a job in Hong Kong and a home and family in Canada.

The term finds its provenance in the post-1997 phenomenon that saw many Chinese Canadian families set up homes in Canada while the main breadwinners returned to Hong Kong to earn their living.

Then, as now, it was often easier to find employment in one's country of departure (and certainly more lucrative), than to find an accepting and open-minded employer in Canada who was willing to accept your credentials and experience as valid, and willing to pay you equitably, on the basis of those qualifications.

At the same time the communist government in Beijing deployed several measures to reassure Hong Kong Chinese that it was business as usual in Hong Kong. Though no such promises were made in the area of political freedom, the fact that Hong Kong continued to prosper after the hand-over encouraged many Chinese immigrants to return.

Nonetheless, in a classic demonstration of circumspection so prevalent in Asian culture, they maintained their status as permanent residents or Canadian citizens. They also maintained their homes in Canada and, typically, sent their children to Canadian schools and universities, while they shuttled back and forth (hence the term astronaut - for the amount of time spent suspended above the earth).

It is estimated that 2/3rds of all male immigrants from Hong Kong live outside Canada according to a 2007 Vancouver Sun article quoting a study by the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia.

And oh, the real Chinese astronauts - the guys who do the spacewalk - they're called taikonauts.

In a campaign that builds off its first spot, posted earlier on Pushing buses here De Lijn continues to promote buses in Brussels as vehicles of social good.

It's turning out to be a light (no pun intended), likeable campaign which does more to increase ridership than most transit advertising I've seen in a long, long time.

Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009

Indian English is being a bhelpuri language. It is being sweet and hot and tangy.

In a most excellent piece first published in 1987 in the New York Times, Steven Weisman (who was being the Times' New Delhi bureau chief), takes a big, big bite of this most zabardast dish. Please to try it by clicking on post title, and I am promising you will be coming back for more.

Shown above: the first ads in Indian English ever written in Canada. I was writing these while being employed at Vickers and Benson for Asian Television Network and Bell ExpressVu. The ads were attracting a readership of their own - and the kind publications were offering to carry a second round just like that only, for free! All gods are great I am saying!

An outstanding report from the NYTimes.com, this video on a Pakistani business illuminates, surprises and challenges our preconceived notions of what Pakistan is, whether there is any tolerance in an Islamic context, while celebrating plain old chutzpah and entrepreneurship. It's a perfect piece for the crazy multicultural mosaic that is our world. A sublime bit of bizarre for the bazaar.

The debate on Chinese script carries on in the pages of the NY Times. Eileen Cheng-yin Chow, professor of Chinese literary studies, Eugene Wang, professor of Asian art, Hsuan Meng, writer at World Journal Weekly and Norman Matloff, computer scientist all weigh in with their opinions and considerations. The score? All the experts prefer the ability of traditional script to capture nuances and subtleties but 3 out of 4 say that there is room for both. Read and enjoy the original article by clicking on the title of this post.

This bold, humanistic spot from Argentina goes where few North American banks dare to go.Viva tolerance!

Yes indeed, this is good news - good news for transit, for manufacturing in Ontario (the new cars will be made in Thunder Bay) and for Toronto.

Can transit be sexy? When it looks like this, it can be. (The livery shown in Bombardier's handout could use some design though).

The new streetcars are great example of what the "product" on the street needs to be, in order to steal the glamour that cars have always had in North America and to convert drivers to riders.

Bombardier's The Streetcar Redefinedwebsite does a pretty good job of showing off the Flexity streetcar in use around the world - but I think it could do a better job of showing the world exactly how sexy public transit can be.

Images made available for download by Bombardier.Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009

Brands began as marks burned onto rumps of rawhide.Many brands are still that today, and, often enough, even less than that: just marks minus the life they were imprinted on.

The most successful brands step beyond the boundaries imposed by design.

Even in intellectual property law a brand is no longer just mark or a unit of design.

In fact, a brand is as much about a logo or mark, as a marriage is about a wedding.

Logos and weddings represent nothing more than beginnings.Whereas brands and marriages represent the continuum. They represent relationship.

Today's brand, is exactly that: a relationship.And all good relationships are built on communication.

The moment a brand leaves the chapel of design and crosses the threshold into communication, it stops looking in the mirror and saying, "I, brand."

It instead begins looking at you, the consumer and says "Us, brand."

copyright 2006 Gavin Barrett All rights reserved

This is a good example of bad advertising that I recently stumbled on. (Tripped over?) What was OC Transpo thinking? A bad visual pun, a poorly executed ad. Tacky. Whoops - did I just say exactly what I felt? My wife would be so proud of me.

All works shown on this blog are the copyright of their respective copyright owners.Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009

As a long-time poet and poetry promoter, I thought I'd use April - being National Poetry Month - to throw the powerful magic of poetry into the rattle-bag that is Bheja Bazaar. Besides, poetry and social commentary have always made excellent bedfellows. Here's an excerpt from the provocative Do Not Embrace Your Mind’s New Negro Friend by William Meredith. Click on the title to read the entire poem at at www.poetryfoundation.org.

Do not embrace your mind’s new negro friend Or embarrass the blackballed jew with memberships: There must be years of atonement first, and even then You may still be the blundering raconteur With the wrong story, and they may still be free. ...

As a long-time poet and poetry promoter, I thought I'd use the excuse of April to nod at the odd appearance of buses and trains in verse. This excerpt of Philip Larkin's spectacular The Whitsun Weddings begins on board a train. Click on the title to go to read the entire poem at www.poetryfoundation.org.

That Whitsun, I was late getting away: Not till aboutOne-twenty on the sunlit SaturdayDid my three-quarters-empty train pull out,All windows down, all cushions hot, all senseOf being in a hurry gone. We ranBehind the backs of houses, crossed a streetOf blinding windscreens, smelt the fish-dock; thenceThe river’s level drifting breadth began,Where sky and Lincolnshire and water meet.

Photograph of Philip Larkin outside the Hull University library via weblink from the Melville House Press website.

Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009

Here's a spot from Brussels that pushes buses in a way designed to appeal to the social animal in all of us.

Understand a fraction. Know zero. See India Reborn on CBC. Tonight at 8 pm and again at 9.

A tip of the turban (literally) to fellow ad man, occasional employee and international Sikh Dalbir Singh. His Sikh Park cartoon series reminds us why this successful, industrious community is so much fun to hang with. They know how to laugh. At others and themselves. Vah, vah, vah. Keep it coming Sardarji!

India just celebrated the incredible, colourful, uninhibited festival of Holi. Enjoy the The Boston Globe's photo essay on the festivities from its spectacular Big Picture website. And in the words of one billion revelers, "Holi Hai!"

A beautifully executed series of peace posters featuring all 12 animals from the Japanese/Chinese zodiac. Shown here, the Ox -it is the Year of the Ox after all. Enjoy. You can find the entire series here.

This hilarious ad (seen here in situ) from Dublin sells safety with a smile if the reaction of riders is anything to go by. Yay Dublin.

Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009

A couple of years ago we were handed a challenging assignment by Viva.They wanted to make university students a core rider group, and make transit a behavioural choice for a new generation or riders. And oh, while doing that, they also wanted us to change the image of the bus as a loser cruiser.

No pressure, clearly.

Our single, unifying idea pivoted on transit’s promise of connectivity - its very reason for being. But we placed it in the context of the student’s world.

Viva connects you with the world you live in, we told them.Yes, Viva gets you there on time, reliably, efficiently and comfortably.Yes, riding Viva is good for the planet, but as importantly, when you ride Viva, you continue to make friends and meet people.

The campaign went on to win awards at transit and mainstream advertising award shows and was a huge success with students. We extended the campaign with an SMS marketing promotion in which students could win an iPod. If you'd like a case study with more details, write to me here.

Client:Viva

Creative Directors:Gavin Barrett, Mike Welsh

Art Director: Mike WelshCopywriter: Gavin Barrett

Photographer: Don Dixon

Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2008

Barrett and Welsh is heading out to San Francisco.

Gavin Barrett, Creative Director | Partner, Barrett and Welsh and Pushing Buses author, will be attending the APTA Marketing and Communications Workshop at the Hilton San Francisco Financial District.

We're looking forward to meeting the other APTA "Bus/CableCar/Train Pushers"!

Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009All creative work shown is the property of its copyright owner(s) unless otherwise specified.

I'm proud to announce that Los Angeles Transportation Headlines, one of the world's most comprehensive aggregations of daily news on transit, transportation and urban planning, has included Pushing Buses in its Selected Blogs list.

Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009

This lenticular poster from Australia promoting safety around rail lines and rail crossings is a perfect match between idea and medium.

One second, there's nothing there. The next...

Now that's creative that hits you like a train.

Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009All creative work shown is the property of its copyright owner(s).

This 1999 poster from the Underground's advertising archives shows that great brands weren't born yesterday.

An evocative precursor to the now well-established Making London Simple positioning, the poster makes the case for the Jubilee line with a single, intelligent sentence and great big serving of graphic wit.

Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009All creative work shown is the property of its copyright owner(s).

#3 in my series of Transit Logo Posters. This one's a collection of bus transit logos from around the world - and by no means is it the most comprehensive. As always, if you'd like a high resolution version (for free) write to me here.

Article, poster and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009All logos and trademarks shown are the property of their owners.

Lord Leverhulme rather famously said "Half of my advertising budget is wasted. I just don't know which half."And with that somewhat tautological statement, he set off a craze for measurement and ROI that has, to this day, not found a resolution.

Frankly, as a creative director and business owner I think it's a waste trying to identify the waste.

I would focus my energies and investment in trying to identify the other half, the half that works. Truth be told, even that will always be an imprecise science. In advertising and marketing, we are still wallowing in the quagmire of empirical limitation and search for validation in numerical or statistical evidence.

The human mind (and human behaviour) continues to be a source of astonishment to those who pursue a deeper understanding of it in a lifetime of study - anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, neuroscientists. Our synapses and dendrites contain more information than a year's worth of tracking studies, focus groups and quantitative research.

None of them can truly account for or predict that undefinable moment when a creative act changes or defines a brand, its position in the market and its true value to its consumers. Think different (to borrow a phrase from a brand that did - and still does).

Over on LinkedIn, a fellow member posted this question, and the answer I sent in might be pertinent to followers of this blog.

His question on Multicultural Agencies:Does anyone have any experience working with (as a client) full service multicultural advertising agencies? What was your over-all experience? What were they good at? What were they not so good at? Any thoughts about how the over-all experience of engaging a multicultural agency could have been better?

My answer:I am a principal/Creative Director at a very successful multicultural agency in Canada - one that is also a mainstream agency. Naturally I approach your questions with a somewhat different lens.

The development of multicultural work is fraught with difficulties.

I find too many multicultural agencies don't dive deep enough into the traditional rigour of good advertising and marketing practice to create insight-based work that is persuasive, engaging and relevant. The result, often, is work that is only one level above mere translation - with just a glimmer or two of culture sensitivity to justify its existence.

At the same time I can't exactly blame the agencies - clients too often want one-off ads - a token nod at the need to have something running in the multicultural market so that they are not conspicuous by their absence.

One thing to be cautious of, is agencies that pretend to be more than they are. Hispanic agencies who swear that they can manage Asian American markets without an issue - or vice versa. Chinese market agencies who say they can handle South Asian markets - or vice versa. There are some that do, but these are few and far apart.

I would say to you that you should expect the same things from your multicultural agency as from your mainstream agency. Work of the highest strategic and creative quality for your market. People you can enjoy working with and can trust to deliver.

I would challenge you to provide the same things to your multicultural agency as you do your mainstream agency. Great, disciplined marketing briefs, the involvement and interest of senior marketing management, and the same respect for the process you give mainstream work.

The commercial, by Arnold DC is slick; high production values are evident throughout. Though mass transit needs all the help it can get in gas-loving North America and while I'll put my money behind the morality of the common good any day, I have to be honest: good solid marketing? Yes. Mind-blowing creative? Nope. Pull down your skirt Arnold. Your briefs are showing.

Image from Amtrak's Acela campaign produced by Arnold DC, via the advertising and media section of the New York Times.Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009

If you are celebrating the Lunar New Year, here's a simple wish from all of us at Barrett and Welsh: may the the Year of the Ox reward all your hard work with abundance and prosperity.

Another logo "poster".This time it's a poster of the logos of a few major international rail transit brands.If you'd like a larger version, simply write to me and request a copy.Coming soon, reviews of individual logos and brand identities.

A common sobriquet that describes Chinese Canadians with a job in Hong Kong and a home and family in Canada.

The term finds its provenance in the post-1997 phenomenon that saw many Chinese Canadian families set up homes in Canada while the main breadwinners returned to Hong Kong to earn their living.

Then, as now, it was often easier to find employment in one's country of departure (and certainly more lucrative), than to find an accepting and open-minded employer in Canada who was willing to accept your credentials and experience as valid, and willing to pay you equitably, on the basis of those qualifications.

At the same time the communist government in Beijing deployed several measures to reassure Hong Kong Chinese that it was business as usual in Hong Kong. Though no such promises were made in the area of political freedom, the fact that Hong Kong continued to prosper after the hand-over encouraged many Chinese immigrants to return.

Nonetheless, in a classic demonstration of circumspection so prevalent in Asian culture, they maintained their status as permanent residents or Canadian citizens. They also maintained their homes in Canada and, typically and sent their children to Canadian schools and universities, while they shuttled back and forth (hence the term astronaut - for the amount of time spent suspended above the earth).

It is estimated that 2/3rds of all male immigrants from Hong Kong live outside Canada according to a 2007 Vancouver Sun article quoting a study by the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia.

And oh, the real Chinese astronauts - the guys who do the spacewalk - they're called taikonauts.

We've been very busy of late, redesigning brands or creating new branding for transit services. The process is usually elaborate and painstaking, and in order to do it right, I've had to traverse the universe of transit and transportation brands several times. I must report that I've been horrified by the poor strategic and creative quality of most transit branding.

On occasion however, I've been thrilled by truly intelligent and iconic work.

I thought that I'd share both kinds from time to time. I'm kicking it off with a "poster" image of the logos of most of the major transit service brands in Canada. If you'd like a larger version, simply write to me and request a copy.

Article, poster and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2009All logos and trademarks shown are the property of their owners.

This exceedingly simple TV spot for German Rail says it all without words. Stille Nacht indeed!

A billboard headline is typically 10 words. Where on earth would an 82 word headline work on a billboard?

On a Mumbai street of course, where the traffic crawls. Oh yes, Mumbai gridlock gives you plenty of time to reflect on the cleverly written copy: an exhortation to ride transit more and drive cars less. I should know. I lived there. Copywriter: Sonal Chhajerh, Art Director: Sanket Pathare via Ads of the World.

Article and blog, copyright Gavin Barrett 2008

Asian American is a catch-all phrase that covers Americans whose origins are East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean), South Asian (mostly Indian, and to a lesser extent Pakistani and Bangladeshi), South-East Asian (Vietnamese and Philipino, and to a lesser extent Thai, Malaysians, Indonesian, Cambodian and Laotian). The idealized definition, would simply be all Americans of Asian origin.

However (and rather interestingly), West Asians (Turkish, Persian and Arabic-speaking peoples), are not typically included in this group, in popular usage. (Perhaps it's not that catch-all in the end?)

The phrase Asian American enjoys preferred use by the US multicultural marketing industry, which tends to use it to separate and simplify the two main multicultural markets thus: Hispanic and Asian American. In Canada, where the Hispanic market is still relatively small, and where familiarity with the disparities between the various Asian ethnicities is high, there is no such grouping; the closest would be the term visible minority.

After writing some 10,000 words in this blog, I thought I'd like to see how one of my favourite web services handles the content. Wordle, as some of you may know generates these elegant dense tag clouds of any content input by you. I input 9999 words - I think the limit is 10,000. This is what I got. Some observations: though I think I've covered the South Asian and Chinese communities equally, Wordle has split South and Asian, so the resulting cloud shows a bias towards Chinese coverage, which isn't the reality of course. (Hmm, lies, damned lies and tag clouds?!)

Plagiarism Watch!

About the ideawallah

Gavin Barrett is Owner/Founding Partner + Chief Creative Officer, of award-winning Toronto agency Barrett and Welsh. In pursuit of big ideas he has: nibbled on pigs' ears (not on a live pig at the time); gone elephant-back in the Thai jungle (no elephants were hurt); gambled in a Macau casino (was utterly destroyed). His ads: have run in 35 countries, helped elect prime ministers, attracted the ire of the lawyers for Dolly the clone sheep, drawn an angry crowd in Lagos, have been studied in business texts in Canada and India and received derisive mention in a John Irving novel. His poems: can be found in Penguin’s anthology of 14 contemporary Indian poets, Reasons for Belonging. He cannot: sing.